Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne is getting used to his high profile

Marty O'Brien, mobrien@dailypress.com | 247-4963

Trevor Bayne was virtually an invisible man when he came to Richmond International Raceway a year ago, another non-descript Nationwide Series youngster he says few fans recognized unless he wore his racing suit.

So he was thrilled that weekend while working out in a Richmond-area fitness club by the relative novelty of a desk clerk asking excitedly if he'd pose with her for a photo.

Racing suit or not, Bayne is deluged by photo and autograph requests these days.

Winning the Daytona 500 brings with it a whirlwind of publicity that even stock car racing icons find daunting. But Bayne's leap from obscurity to victory lane at Daytona in February has been life-changing in a way he's still getting used to.

"The gym situation in Richmond was pretty funny, because that was one of the first times that ever happened to me," said Bayne, who will run for Roush Fenway Racing on Friday in the BUBBA burger 250 Nationwide race at RIR. "The only thing I didn't realize when I thought about how cool it looked that the other drivers were walking with a herd of people, is that there's no on-off switch.

"It's always on. No matter where you are or what you're trying to do, in a restaurant in the middle of the night, there's always people around."

That's because Bayne, a 20-year-old Knoxville, Tenn. native, captured the public imagination in a way few NASCAR newcomers ever have with his stunning Daytona 500 victory. Bayne won the Great American Race in only his second Sprint Cup start, driving for a beloved underdog team: the Wood Brothers.

Only four days before, he literally sat on pit road waiting an hour for someone to drive out with him to practice in one of the two-car tandems needed to compete on Daytona's new asphalt. Suddenly, he was a national celebrity.

"Winning the 500 gives me a platform to do things that I love, like talking to churches."

But it affords him little free time and even less privacy.

Used to be when Bayne's buddies would sing or get a little loud in a Wal-Mart, he'd join right in. Now he knows drawing attention to himself might mean an unscheduled hour of signing autographs. He cherishes time with friends, and sounded positively excited earlier this week to spend time with them hiking and swimming in the Smokey Mountains.

"I'm just learning how to manage the demands on my time," he said. "Being on a schedule and getting up early is something I'm still getting used to."

The upside, he said, is acceptance among his peers. When the Sprint Cup series stopped recently at Talladega, a superspeedway where the two-car tandems are a necessity like at Daytona, Bayne says he got to choose drafting partners.

The fact that he hasn't won in the 14 races since Daytona, seven in Cup and seven in Nationwide, doesn't bother him. He says winning at Daytona has eased the pressure from within, even as it increased expectations.

"To be honest, I'd feel a lot more pressure if I hadn't won," he said. "Winning gives me a little bit of a cushion of stability and confidence.

"And it gives me the desire to win another race."

He'll get plenty of chances this season. He'll run 12 more Cup races for the Wood Brothers — Richmond is the first Cup event he's missing — while running the entire Nationwide schedule for Roush Fenway.

Bayne's desire to win again doesn't mean he takes the 500 victory for granted. That's particularly true after hearing former Cup champion Matt Kenseth talk about breaking a 77-race losing streak at Texas earlier this month.

"I already knew how tough it was to win even before Daytona, and I appreciate what Matt said about not knowing if he'd ever get back to victory lane again," Bayne said. "You never know, that could happen to me: the 500 might be my only win.

"I hope not, because I'm young and feel like I have a lot of racing left."